The sudden and untimely death of my next door neighbour at the age of 51 has made me think quite a lot about what would happen to my effects were I to peg-it tomorrow. Would my books be sold on and achieve their true value or would they be taken to the nearest charity shop? Worse still, would they simply be thrown out?
Having had some of my books on shelves for the best part of 40 years, I'd be horrified to think that such a fate should befall them and so I'm going to start weeding them out and passing them on to a new audience.
I will add to the Books for Sale list as I go on. In the meantime, I've started with a great collection of Rifle Brigade Chronicles from 1890 to 1932. All of the 1890s volumes were sold within a few hours but there is still a huge amount of information to be found in those volumes which remain.
Regimental annuals and regimental chronicles provide a massive amount of detail and, if you're very lucky, may even include your other-rank ancestor's name as well. For even if, by chance, a service record does happen to survive for the person you are interested in, it is unlikely to mention that he took part in a tug-of-war match, or was a member of the 1st Battalion football team, or won a shooting medal.
The Rifle Brigade chronicles are full of fascinating information (and the trivia vbeloved of our Victorian and Edwardian ancestors) and most of them are profusely illustrated as well. Each battalion of the regiment submitted annual returns and so here you'll see who the officers were, where the battalion was stationed and what it was doing. Quite simply, they're essential reading but I have two sets, one complete set which stretches from 1890 to 1965 and the other which covers 1890 to 1932 (with a few gaps). They take up a lot of room and so I'm pleased to offer them for sale.
All of the photos on this page are taken from various issues of the Rifle Brigade Chronicle.
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